Tavola is one of my favorite kitchen related stores since they carry a number of great brands like WMF, Wilton, Zwilling J.A.Henckels, Le Creuset, Cuisine Art, Bodum, Peugeot mills and Joseph Joseph. The only issue I had with them was that they were located in the industrial area of Shuwaikh past highway 60 and so getting there was always a journey.

But, just before the Eid holidays Tavola opened a new much larger location in Tilal Complex, which is also in Shuwaikh but an easier location to get to. The new location is divided into two floors with all their brands located on the lower floor while the top floor is dedicated to their Wilton baking products as well as two large rooms where they hold baking workshops.

If you want to know what brands they carry the full list is available on their website [Here]. On the other hand if you want to know more on their baking workshops they’re posting the schedules up on their instagram account @tavolakuwait

A couple of days back I posted about Edfa3ly which I said was “the cheapest way to ship lightweight packages from the US”. Well its gonna get even cheaper now since they emailed me last night letting me know they’ve set up a coupon code for my readers to use.

If you use the coupon code “248am” on their website, they’ll waive the international shipping fees and Kuwait customs fee for any order below $50.

Terms and conditions for the coupon:
– Only one coupon can be issued per person per account
– Limited to max $50
– Valid until August 22nd

So if you were planning to order an item using them now would be the perfect time. Here is a link to their [Website]

UPDATE: There have been major changes to the service since this post. Edfa3ly are no longer the cheapest option to ship, they no longer charge by the 100grams and they are now more expensive than PostaPlus.

A couple of weeks back a US mail forwarding company called Edfa3ly contacted me to let me know about their service. Since I had already reviewed countless of similar shipping services, I really wasn’t interested in reviewing another. But, turns out this shipping company had one feature that caught my attention. While services like Aramex’s Shop & Ship and PostaPlus’s MyBox charge per 1/2kg, Edfa3ly charges per 100grams, so I decided to try them out.

If you haven’t used a service like Shop & Ship before, they usually have a minimum weight they charge which is 1/2kg. So if your package weighed 50 grams you would still be charged 1/2kg. The charge varies from company to company, I use PostaPlus currently and they charge KD2.5 for the first 1/2kg while Aramex charges KD3.250. Both PostaPlus and Aramex also charge KD1 on top of that as a customs clearance fee so the cheapest you could ever pay with PostaPlus is KD3.5 and KD4.250 with Aramex. So if your item doesn’t cost much and doesn’t weigh much, it’s not feasible to order it all the way from the States.

I have a bunch of stuff on my Amazon wish list that I need but don’t bother ordering because of this very fact. For example there is a rubber eyecup for my camera, it’s a tiny rubber piece that costs around KD3 so it wouldn’t make sense to order it and then pay at least KD3.5 on top of that for shipping. But since Edfa3ly charge by the 100grams I decided to order it. Unlike other forwarding services, you don’t need to sign up to Edfa3ly. You just go to the website, enter the URL of the item you want to buy, fill out some information and then pay for the item and they will order it for you and ship it to Kuwait. So I did that and this is what the total came out to be for my order:

So shipping from Amazon to Kuwait cost me just $2.41! You don’t pay US tax, you don’t pay US shipping and you don’t pay a local custom clearance fee. Instead you just pay the cost of shipping from the US to Kuwait plus an Edfa3ly fee which is 5% of the item cost. I had a package shipped to me and delivered to me in Kuwait within 10 days and just paid around 750 fils for shipping. Thats insane! I’ve got so many tiny cheap stuff I need to buy now like a new Dremel wrench since I lost mine or these tiny plastic rivets for my Datsun. Suddenly so many more things seem accessible.

So if you’re looking to order items that don’t cost much and weigh under 1/2kg, I can’t think of any better alternative. Here is a link to the Edfa3ly website [Link]

Their website features all their in store products and you can pay online using Knet. Delivery is within 24 hours so if you don’t want to drive all the way to the city to pick up an item, you can now order it online. Here is a link to their [Website]

If you were hoping the American supermarket chain Whole Foods would open in Kuwait one day, well this is the closest thing you’re gonna get. Wholesome Foods is a new supermarket that Saveco have opened up and not only does it have the same name as Whole Foods, it basically has the same interior look and color scheme along with a similar concept (they mostly carry organic and healthy food products).

It’s not a very large place, but it’s two floors and they have a good variety of items you won’t find at other supermarkets. They’re located in Salmiya in The View building where Marks & Spencer is so the place is pretty close to where I live. Since I’m always frustrated with the lack of product range at Sultan I’ll probably be passing by Whole Foods (can we just call it that?) to pick up whatever I can’t find anywhere else.

If you’re wondering about the prices, they’re similar to Saveco. Whole Foods is open daily from 10AM to 1AM and here is their location on [Google Maps]

The Boulevard park/mall/food plaza is now kind of open. Basically right now there is Chilis and 5Napkins open in the food plaza overlooking the lake and thats about it over there. Inside the mall there is only Caribou Coffee right now but according to an employee there a few other stores are supposedly opening in the next few days. So if you’re thinking of passing by might be a good idea to do it next week since its open but not really open right now. If you don’t know where Boulevard is, here is the link on [Google Maps]

For more pictures of Boulevard plus a list of all the stores opening up, click [Here]

Someone on Kuwikipedia asked if there was a way to get a beIN receiver without going to Hawalli and a person replied back with a link to a local online satellite shop that deliver. I thought this was a useful link to bookmark on the blog for future reference so if you ever want to buy a satellite receiver without leaving your house then check out this [Link]

If the fact that Healthy Feast and Arabica opening in Shuwaikh wasn’t enough to convince you it’s the next up and coming area, I found out last week that Vol.1 is also opening in Shuwaikh.

There is a new complex that will be completed in a couple of months time called Mayar which is owned by Zaleej Real Estate Company, the same company that owns Lilly Center where Pick Yo and Caribou Coffee are located down the street. The complex will house different businesses ranging from coffee shops and restaurants to flower shops, electronics shops, fashion stores and health clubs. Some of the confirmed places opening up there are Vol.1, Urban Cafe, Brothers Burger, Melenzane, November Bakery, Aya Coco, Brown Boutique, Modish and Tiny Socks. If you work in the area and are hoping for a Vol.1 morning caffeine boost don’t get excited just yet since they’re hoping to open after summer in around October/November.

InstaSalla is a new app that allows you to order groceries from your local co-op and have it delivered within 90 minutes. Based on my short experience with the app it seems they have ALL their products available online to purchase which means this might be more comprehensive than the likes of Taw9eel or the LuLu web store.

The app is mainly in Arabic although there is an English option (swipe left to reveal the sidebar). Sadly not everything was translated to English, if you try to order anything or even register an account you’ll be met with Arabic menus even if you had chosen English as the app’s language. Still, not bad for the first release.

Three new projects have opened up at Al Shaheed Park so I figured I’d list them all under one post (Their names below will take you to their instagram accounts):

Fayrouzeyat
The fine dining Lebanese restaurant Fayrouzeyat now have a location at Al Shaheed Park.They’re open from 10AM to 10PM daily.

The Reading Room
The Reading Room is a gift shop and community work space brought to you by the creative ladies behind The Yard. They’re open daily from 9AM to 9PM except on Fridays when they’re open from 1PM to 8PM.